“Even when I was as sick as that he would curl up in the bed with me,” Mrs Romney said, pausing to wipe away a tear during a weekend of interviews for CNN at the Romney’s large lakeside home in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire…

The couple’s 42-year-old eldest son, Tagg Romney, his voice similarly breaking with emotion, also recalled the human side of the former founder of Bain Capital private equity.

“It was a tough moment for both of them. It was interesting to see the way he treated her as they went through that,” he said, “Very caring, very loving, very frustrating for him not to be able to step in and fix it. But they drew even closer.”